Wales’ bridges need money spending on upgrades

24th August 2018

About 40 state-managed bridges in Wales need £5m spent on them to meet current standards, said the Welsh Government.

While the Government says they are not dangerous or liable to collapse, some 39 out of 1,263 bridges are substandard and the admission came after the Institution for Civil Engineers in Wales said the Genoa, Italy motorway collapse was an alarm call.

An RAC Foundation in January said 361 local council-maintained bridges in Wales – out of 6,694 – were “substandard” and would cost £98m to bring them into a “good, if not perfect condition”.

No bridges in Wales are of a similar design to the Morandi Bridge in Genoa but the government says hundreds are from the same era and made from concrete and steel which may be vulnerable to corrosion.

General bridge inspections happen every two years, says the government.

“It’s a very difficult decision that politicians have to make,” said Keith Jones, Institution of Civil Engineers Wales Cymru director.

“Do you prioritise a crumbling school, a library roof, social services or do you carry out more maintenance on bridges?

“But this bridge collapse that we’ve seen tragically in Genoa, I think we should take as a call to action to make sure that the whole of the travelling public is aware that we need to invest in the very infrastructure on which our lives demand.”

Substandard bridges can still be used by traffic but may have weight or speed restrictions in place to ensure safety.